By Megan Fleet

Carriers worldwide  reel in consumers with the lure of ‘free’ smartphones but then tie-in customers into long-term service contracts.  Despite consumer clamoring for changes to the service plans… carriers remained steadfast to their service vs. price plans.  Finally Rogers has risen from the carrier masses and began to interpreted and act on the market sensing feedback provided by its customer and target audience base.  Rogers introduces major changes to their service plans.   After all, 4G LTE is not a necessity – it’s a luxury of speed.

Discover how unlocked cell phones empower consumers with the freedom to choose the right carrier with the right service plan at the right price.

So, to save their customers and ensure mobile device sales of the up and coming 4G LTE capable smartphones, the Rogers has rolled out their Ultimate Unlimited Family plans. There are two options which include “extreme” text messaging and unlimited local talk time.

The company is touting the benefits of these plans with statements like “Overage is eliminated” and “Peace of mind that they won’t have a huge monthly bill.” Customers will also enjoy the ease of “One bill for their family’s wireless services” which is likely designed to capture some of the revenue of bringing these high speed wireless services into the home that is currently handed over to cable and satellite companies each month.

Leaving your valuable mobile devices unprotected is risky!   Discover the latest innovative protection solutions… stylish top brand bags, sleeves and cases specifically designed to protect your devices from scratches and blemishes. Tough on the outside, sweet on the inside these brand name protection accessories combine complete device coverage with sleek artistic expression..

Customers are consuming more and more data and streaming media in lieu of traditional television and media distribution channels. This will only grow as tablets, media devices (iPod), gaming consoles and other peripheral devices integrate operating system platforms like iOS, Android, and Windows.

In a move that is possibly designed to compete against growing popularity of unlocked smartphones, customers who sign up for these new unlimited plans will have Buy One, Get One deals (it actually translates into Buy One, Get Four devices).

In addition to the talk and texting benefits of the new Ultimate Unlimited Family plans, there will be adjusted LTE plan pricing on the horizon. There are details and plans of these changes that Rogers is touting that “Customers can truly say goodbye to those other cell phone providers.” Perhaps these major pricing changes will result in increased revenues from services and augmented smartphone and tablet sales.

By Aldo Panessidi

Kudos to Rogers for scaling its LTE (Long Term Evolution) network to reach 11 million Canadians so quickly. As of today, that coverage has been expanded to include service in major Montreal and of island suburbs including Terrebonne, Brossard, Longueil, Laval, and Vaudreuil. At the moment, the LTE network is available to Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto and their environs.  Discover the latest LTE enabled unlocked cell phones.

According to today’s announcement, the mobile carrier will not stop there. The LTE expansion project intends to encompass twenty-five additional Canadian cities in 2012. The company has decided not to fill the public in on what those cities are, but the end game is to have LTE coverage for 20 million Canadian customers by the end of this year.

Leaving your valuable mobile devices unprotected is risky!  Discover the latest innovative protection solutions… stylish top brand bags, sleeves and cases specifically designed to protect your devices from scratches and blemishes.  Tough on the outside, sweet on the inside these brand name protection accessories combine complete device coverage with sleek artistic expression.

As the company was first to market with an LTE launch for Canada, this continued growth spells competition for Bell Mobility, Telus, Fido, and other up and coming providers who would love to pair that kind of network coverage with the more costly data plans and schnazzy new LTE-enabled smartphones.  Consumer forums indicate that customers have yet to see a high value to this technology that matches the associated cost.

Did you know that accessories are designed to enhance your mobility?  Discover the select accessories such as; stylus & pens, micro SD memory cards, batteries, docking stations, Bluetooth headsets, data cables and glider gloves all specifically designed to make your devices functionally efficient and performance rich.

Consequently, this Rogers network could potentially have peek download speeds of 150 Mbps and upload speeds of 70Mbps. Real-world usage is bound to be slower, but customers seemingly have no cap on their need for speed and new tech. The result is consumption of more data, faster which typically result in shocking cell phone bills.

The flip side is that the 4G LTE data plan costs can result in consumers choosing a 3G handset with a more attractive data plan. Once the major competitors like Bell Mobility, Telus and the others kick in – we should see a drop in resulting in an uptick in 4G LTE smartphones.

Join the movement and break free from long-term carrier service contracts.  Unlocked cell phone empower consumers to select their preferred carrier and negotiate a service plan the at best meets their mobile lifestyle at the right price.

By John Castell

Get excited iBooks users! The iOS jailbreak known as Corona that was released last month for the iPhone4S and iPad is now updated to support Apple’s e-reader, iBooks. Be sure to get your updates though, as it is the build for version iOS 5.0.1.

But what does this new jailbreak upgrade mean for your Apple experience? While not as gratifying as playing with a new acquisition from the phenomenal family of accessories for each of the tablet, iPod media device and smartphones that will be covered by this new software update, it could address some of the issues occurring during browsing sessions on these same devices.

Because if you have experienced the launcher crashing on occasion, it is this upgrade that will doctor it up. There are some other bugs that will be fixed as well, but the addressed launcher is the biggie (for the really technical of you out there, the build is also included in redsn0w 0.9.10b4). So, with this update you need not fear having to remove your favorite Apple handset or tablet from its cozy protective case to play tech detective.

Leaving your valuable mobile devices unprotected is risky! Discover the latest innovative protection solutions… stylish top brand bags, sleeves and cases specifically designed to protect your devices from scratches and blemishes. Tough on the outside, sweet on the inside these brand name protection accessories combine complete device coverage with sleek artistic expression.

For those of you who already have jailbroken iPhone4 or iPad devices, Corona can be found and run through the Cydia store. Another option is downloading the updated OS X for Windows version (redsn0w) which will have the same impact.

And if you do not yet possess this untethered jailbreak, you can find more information on compatibility for iPhone 3GS, iPhone4, the first generation iPad, iPod Touch 3G and the iPod Touch 4G. Clearly this development team has been hard at work to bring this jailbreak technology to Apple’s various device offerings of smartphones, tablets and media players. Now, if we can keep that open concept movement to empower customers at other levels of purchasing and freedom of customization, amazing innovation is in the works.

Now to await their next upgrade to include iPhone4S and iPad2…

By Aldo Panessidi

Seriously – how many blogs have you devoured to glean information and rumors of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show? Then checkout  our featured blog  ‘All You Need to Know on CES 2012′ More specifically, how long have you waited to know what tech gadgets, innovative protective accessories, tablets, and smartphones are on the horizon for 2012?

Wait no more! Like kids in a candy store, new games, apps and mobile platforms are being devoured  by attendees of this conference. The buzz will launch some lesser known companies that likely have ingenious solutions to how we can better integrate all this technology into daily life. Personally a handsfree accessory or app that would help keep my tablet free of messy hands while cooking would be amazing.  Discover the latest in handsfree technology along with widest online selection of Bluetooth Headsets and BlueTooth Car Kits.  Latest technology from top brand manufacturers.  Hands free functionality is designed for the interactive ‘on the go’ lifestyle  and allows for safe driving

While I am on the lookout for such technology, you may be more interested in Sony’s announcement at the CES.   An addition to the Sony  line of cell phones – the Sony Xperia S!  The stats for this newbie are actually pretty impressive: 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 4.3-inch 1280 x 720 display, 1GB of RAM, and an unheard of 12 megapixel rear camera that is all the more impressive for its use of Sony’s Exmor R backlit sensor.   Leaving your valuable mobile devices unprotected is risky!  Discover the latest innovative protection solutions… stylish top brand bags, sleeves and cases specifically designed to protect your devices from scratches and blemishes.  Tough on the outside, sweet on the inside these brand name protection accessories combine complete device coverage with sleek artistic expression.

For the media lovers out there, a 16GB and 32 GB model will be available. It is unclear why the Xperia S does not have a micro SD memory card slot for additional memory capacity as this is relatively standard to give customers more flexibility and the ability to purchase more memory cards as needed.  Get powered up for work, life and play easily and conveniently with the latest collection of desktop chargers , wall chargers and car chargers.   Get all the power and energy you need for the mobile lifestyle.

The sleek device will be made available worldwide beginning in March. What we don’t know is the pricing, whether one or both versions will be made available to customers as unlocked. Oh, and don’t forget – this girl is itching to see some smartphone accessories that better work in a woman’s world!

Are Carriers Prepared?

By John Castell

When the iPhone 4S was released, there were a fair number of naysayers out there questioning if this latest Apple smartphone would make the kind of mark its past devices have. Sure it has Siri and some other upgrades, but it looks similar. It fits the same protective case accessories and docking stations and the like, so many were speculative of the impact this one would make. According to a recent research by Arieso, this latest generation iPhone is definitely having an impact.

How? Data is showing that iPhone 4S consumers use practically twice the amount of data as its predecessor, the iPhone 4. Throw in the statistic of these hyper-users consuming more than 3 times the data of the original iPad 3G and jaws start to drop. Even Arieso’s chief technical officer, Michael Flanagan marveled “the data usage numbers I am seeing make me wonder what I am missing.”

The likely culprit is Siri. Michael Flanagan and other iPhone 4 users are bereft of the virtual assistant’s powers that aid in searching which (although not stated in the report) is the obvious suspect for the increased data consumption. Enhance your mobility and turn your device into a power tool! Discover select accessories such as; stylus & pens, micro SD memory cards, batteries, docking stations, Bluetooth headsets, data cables and glider gloves all specifically designed to make your devices functionally efficient and performance rich.

Also striking is Arieso’s reporting that it is a mere 1% of data users consuming half of all downlink data. Flanagan did need to note, “while the report provides general trends, the studies on which they’re based demonstrate the importance to operators of understanding the increased consumption each type of smartphone brings.” But are carriers listening? Data usage will only continue to increase as tablets and smartphones become more prevalent, but mobile providers don’t seem to be heeding the trends that will eventually compromise the quality of service for their subscribers.

With this kind of ostrich behavior from carriers, consumers should be clamoring for more unlocked phone options so they have the freedom to seek out services that will provide the speeds, complimentary accessories, and forward moving innovation that consumers are paying for.

By Aldo Panessidi

There is just something about the holidays that has us on our phones more than usual. Texting rates are among the highest on Christmas Eve, and now it seems app downloads spike around the end of the year as well. This may have something to do with the widespread propensity to gift mobile devices, tablets, and their accompanying techie accessories that have our thumbs busier than ever.

To cap off the year, Flurry Analytics took inventory of the number of app downloads for iOS and Android platforms during the holiday season. The totals are a bit staggering – 1.2 billion downloads across the surveyed countries listed above.

Segmented by country, the United States dominated (no surprise considering their population), but with a markedly smaller population, the neighbor to the North, Canada, had a respectable showing at 41 million apps downloaded.  No doubt these numbers would be a little higher if they incorporated Research In Motion downloads in the BlackBerry Marketplace as it is a native Canadian company and with its PlayBook tablet bound to have more downloads to tally as well.

What is really impressive is the marked spike in these downloads globally at the iOS and Android app stores. A whopping 60 percent higher download rate the week of Christmas and New Year’s compared to the weekly averages during the rest of December.

The fact is that customers are consolidating their technology (moving to a single Android or iOS for example). They are also incorporating their smartphones and tablets into daily life with the help of consumer driven accessory innovations: hands-free accessories in the car or home entertainment accessories to leverage the multi-media functions these devices cover. So, come Christmas 2012, it will be no surprise if the numbers from 2012 are blown out of the water and customers are shown to use their smartphones, tablets and all their nifty apps even more.

The 2010 MeeGo Conference, which was, in its earlier rendition, known as the Maemo Conference has opened its doors for audiences waiting to grab the 600 free seats that have been made available. And if you want in on the event, you need to act quickly because the seats are reserved like hot cake, you can be sure of that.

However, this should probably act as a fair warning to any average person, or even the most loyal of smartphone enthusiast because it might get a bit boring from time to time, with so many gadgets, so much technology all running at the same time and those that do make an impression on your mind, are scrapped in the test stage and are not mass produced. And it is imperative for you to know that unless your laptop runs on any of the billion Linux distributions that are available and can be had, then do not bother bringing it with you and trouble yourself even more. You will find there are so many people out there who tend to preach open source soft wares and unless there is talk about any new application that would be launched or such, you will feel like tearing your hair off.

The event will be taking place between November 15^th to 17^th and it will be held at Dublin, the capital of Ireland at the Aviva Stadium and even hotel rooms will be available on discount for all those who are always seeking freebies and complain about anything and everything.

As this will be the first ever MeeGo Conference, there will probably be a lot of talk about Intel, and that alone might be of any interest to one and all. However, if you are willing to wait till February 2011, then you will catch the cell phone World Congress that will be held in Barcelona.

The Golf Channel has announced the launch of the Golf Channel Mobile application which will be available on unlocked iPhone4 and Android devices. The channel will reportedly provide access to all the features of the channel and if you are a fanatic of the channel, it would be stupid for you to not install the application on the device that you use, and here are a few reasons why you should have it:

• The interface is very clean and is tremendously user friendly
• You will have access to the everyday news, reviews of movies and many other different programs
• Instructions and tips on many different topics (let’s not reveal the topics just to keep it interesting)
• You can demand the videos that you want to watch
• Many other features related to travel and adventure, and much more.

It can be said that the Golf Channel cell phone application is the best application for many of your needs and other demands and the application delivers on what it promises as well. Use your iPhone or Android device and head on to the website of the Golf Channel and follow the instructions that you find over there and get started with the application.

It has always been the goal of the channel to keep the fans and viewers always gripped and updated about the latest from the world of sports, be it tips on how to better their own game or letting them know of every move their favorite golfers are making. The application will offer absolutely free content that will help the recreational golfer improve his game. There will be tips, as well as a vast collection of videos for the viewer to go through. There will also be pointers on what equipment to choose among various other things.

For devices that are powered by Android, Gesture Search is a very handy tool that can be used to search through the entirety of your cell phone, and for that you just have to draw on the screen and the rest will be done by the application itself, and what’s more interesting is the fact that it has become even more interesting after it was updated and a new feature called the Double Flip was added.

The function of the double Flip is to launch the application of the Gesture Search, which can be done just by flipping the phone, no matter where you might be on the phone. All that is required for one to do, is to flip the phone face down, and then bring it back up and the application will be launched. However, there still are many glitches. Try enabling the Double Flip function and after changing the setting to ‘easy to trigger’, go to another application. It will work successfully a few times but at the times when you actually double flip, the application would just crash and go haywire. Also, the feature will not be up to working capacity unless all the applications that are running are killed and the Gesture Search application is launched again.

Although there are such minor glitches and flaws, it is always nice to see Google adding newer features to their applications, albeit something as simple as the Double Flip. As we all know, some of the applications that Google launches from time to time are just worth passing buy, but it is not the same in this case. If Google would just update its other applications as it does for the Maps in Android devices that would be very worthwhile.

It is not a very bad bet to try out, and since it is free, there is hardly anything to lose.

Due to some unknown reason, China had a law that disallowed the shipping of Wi-Fi devices; rather you had to use the version indigenous to China called WAPI. WAPI is a special wireless designation much like Wi-Fi that could potentially allow the Chinese government to eavesdrop on every transmission made. This was done according to the government to keep a check and as they say due to threat from other countries. This event is not something new. Because of their pride and unwillingness to pay royalty fees, the Chinese, invariably have copied a Western Standard and made it their own.

Nevertheless, the news: Soon, the official unlocked iPhone4 reseller of China, China Unicom, will be permitted to sell the models currently available in the West, which implies that they will finally be Wi-Fi enabled. As the black market for imported iPhones is rather large the operator was encouraging this quite enthusiastically.

As they have got cater to the needs of more than a billion people of the Chinese population.

It will be interesting to see whether the much hyped iPhone will be able to live up to the hype and cater to the smart phone audience in the booming economy of China. Speaking of the  iPhone 4, rumour has it that the Apple and China Unicom folks are working to bring not only the stainless steel phone but also the iPad, which recently got the government approval to China. But seeing the way things are in China it may take ‘ages’ for the iPad to arrive. China being one of the world’s largest economies, it is expected to embrace the iPhone like the “western world”. But in order to put up a fight against the grey market, the phones have to be priced strategically.